Newsletter May 30

Dear 4B Families,

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful Memorial Day Weekend! I can’t remember one with better weather! It is hard to imagine that this is the second to last newsletter of the school year, and that summer break is right around the corner. This week we will be wrapping up some units of study and taking some end of the year assessments. No studying will be required. 🙂

Don’t forget, the Buy One, Get One Free Book Fair is on all week.  Stock up for summer reading!

Mystery Book Reports: The students will be giving a short presentation on their mystery book this Thursday or Friday. The students also have two optional papers they started filling out last week relating to their mystery. The presentation is simple—about 2 minutes—summarizing the mystery. They can present as themselves, as a reporter or as one of the characters. Some class time will be given to work on finishing up the paperwork and planning presentations in class on Wednesday, but the remainder of the work will need to be completed at home. All students need to have their mystery books at school each day this week!

Math: We are wrapping up our year by reviewing concepts and taking some assessments. I will be sending out information next Monday about the Summer Mathletics Certificate program that I hope all of the 4th grade students will complete.

The letter will also include usernames and passwords for both News-o-Matic and Spelling/Vocabulary City.  Students can access these sites all summer as part of our school’s subscription.  These sites are great ways to build reading, vocabulary, spelling and math skills!  Keep your usernames in a safe place for easy access!

Reading/LA: We will be finishing up our novel this week and taking some final assessments on the story. To wrap up the year we will practice and present a short play/readers theater called Blame It On the Wolf to the third grade classes next week. There is no spelling test this week. The students are wrapping up their final Flat Stanley entries. I will send home the grade sheets/rubrics for the Flat Stanley Journals and final entry next week.

Social Studies: Corrected Washington City tests are in your child’s filer. You will also find a corrected Oregon Trail assignment that I thought I had returned, but found this weekend. Our studies this week is focusing on early Seattle history, which, will help us prepare for our field trip next week.

Pray for sun!! Our final field trip of the year will take place next Wednesday, June 7th. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and give us a rain free day. We will learn about the early history of Seattle on the very entertaining, and historical Underground Tour. For those of you that have been on the public tour before, please know that this tour is geared for school age students and very appropriate! Following the tour we will head to Alki Beach to eat our lunches and have some playtime together on the same beach that the Denny Party landed on in 1851. Along with their sack lunches, students may want to bring a water bottle, especially if it is hot. If you signed up to drive/chaperone you will be getting an email later this week with some specific information.

I forgot to ask for an extra two or three dollars to help cover the parking costs on the field trip if you are not driving. We would appreciate any donations to help cover this cost for our drivers. Thank you!

 Cleaning Days next Tuesday and Thursday!  All students are asked to bring in a sturdy bag or two so that they can bring home the contents of their desks, as well as some rags for cleaning. Thank you! Many of the items the students will bring home like scissors and rulers can be used next year. I have been keeping a portfolio of some of the bigger and more “special” projects and assignments this year. These items will come home on Thursday in a separate large “portfolio folder” the students will make. Don’t throw away this portfolio without taking out what you could like to save!

Have a great week—I know it is busy—for everyone, but it is so important for the students to remain focused and attentive to their work for a few more days. Thank you for your assistance.

Happy June and Graduation Day to our 8th Graders on Thursday

 

Have a great week!